Isles Lose Poulin for Season, Acquire Montoya

"It's bad luck for Ricky but I think it's a great opportunity for me and I'm just looking forward to playing some games." -Kevin Poulin on February 4th

I wasn't all that hopeful that the results of Kevin Poulin's MRI would come back with good news. When the injury happened, it looked pretty bad immediately. As it turns out, it's just as bad as many expected.


For the 2nd time, Kevin Poulin has dislocated his left knee cap. Just like the other time in juniors, this one too will require surgery. Poulin will be out for the remainder of the season.

Despite the Isles wanting to send the goalie down to be the everyday starter at the AHL level, Poulin played better and better each night and was working on cutting down on some of his extra movements, which seemed to be what one of his weaknesses were.

As you can see from the quote above, Poulin knew this was his chance to show what he can do as a 20 year old against NHLers. He was always a guy who had a lot of promise, even though he fell to the 5th round in 2008, ironically mainly due to injury and inconsistency.

That chance ended when Poulin's skate got caught in a rut on the infamous Coliseum ice, causing the goalie to immediately crumble to the ice. It was a site that made many fans all around the world bury their head in their hands.

For a while, it appeared as though it suddenly became Mikko Koskinen's turn to show his stuff. After being named the starter to replace Poulin against the Maple Leafs, he promptly gave up two goals on the first two NHL shots he saw. Koskinen would settle down a bit, and didn't receive a heck of a lot of support from his teammates, who appeared to look rather deflated at times due to Poulin going down.

During the game, Garth Snow began to make some calls around the league, looking for a team that had a 3rd string goalie that he could get on the cheap.

Wednesday saw a lot of action as far as transactions in the NHL. After the Leafs dealt away defenseman Francois Beauchemin, goalie Jonas Gustavsson was pulled from his start in the AHL. For a few hours, people wondered what was going on there and tried to connect the dots, wondering if this was the 3rd string veteran that Snow was targeting. Since James Reimer has come up and looked really good for the Leafs, both J.S. Giguere and Gustavsson have lost starts.

But word came down that Gustavsson actually was having problems with his heart rate again and as a result, was removed from the game. So the search for a new goalie went on.

On our Twitter account, I posted that I felt Snow was going to add a goalie of the Martin Gerber or Curtis Sanford variety. Both of these guys actually fit the bill for what he was looking for.

Needless to say, many were a bit surprised when the news hit the wire about the Isles trading a 6th rounder this summer to the Phoenix Coyotes in return for Al Montoya.

Montoya, better known by Isles fans as the last goalie to get into a fight with Rick DiPietro prior to Brent Johnson, was the 6th overall pick by the New York Rangers in the 2004 draft. Thing's haven't worked out for Montoya though, now 25. To date he has played all of five games in the NHL, all with the Coyotes.

Montoya was struggling this season in San Antonio of the AHL, but overall has compiled a 96-72-7 record since joining the league in 05-06. His overall numbers haven't been horrible, but this season is obviously one of his worst ones yet.

Since Montoya still is fairly young, I'm assuming Snow saw the potential for something here. I don't think there is anything else potential wise there, but stranger things have happened. For Montoya, he gets a chance to finally be an NHL goalie for 28 games. If he plays well he gets noticed, if not by the Isles then by some other team. If not, then he'll still be talented enough to be an AHL guy, maybe even for the Isles.

It is assumed that with Nathan Lawson really close to returning, Koskinen and Joel Martin will head back down to Bridgeport while Montoya and Lawson handle the nets up with the Isles for the balance of the season.

Montoya will go to Bridgeport, but join the Isles when they return home from Montreal. He may even start against the Penguins on Friday.

Let's just hope that he doesn't get hurt now.

-CH

nyifyi@gmail.com

DiPietro Out 4-6 Weeks

I decided to use my Friday off today to take the time and head over to the Coliseum to watch practice. I made the decision at pretty much the last minute, and in the end it turned into quite a busy day.

No sooner did I get there and take a seat and start scribbling some items in my notebook, the Isles staff informed me that I had to go to the locker room. Now I don't get the internet on my phone at this time, and left my house at about 11:45. So I truly had no idea what was up.


DiPietro has suffered another setback. Photo by C. Hessel

Before entering I asked what happened and was told Rick DiPietro was going to speak. My immediate thought was "uh oh."

I turn from the hallway to the entrance of the locker room. As soon as I enter, DiPietro removes his aviator sunglasses to address those of us there.

Upon seeing the condition of his right eye I immediately frowned, as would a parent walking into a room to see their child had done something bad. I kept thinking about the strong feelings I had after the fight where I essentially said it was foolish for DiPietro to be engaging in stuff like this no matter who did the initiating.

Just from looking at the swelling on his face I knew it was going to be a while. Arthur Staple of Newsday began to ask about the knee injury, and I was confused at first. I soon realized though what was going on here, that this was more than just some broken bones in his cheek.

My initial thought after hearing him speak and seeing the damage was that he was done for the year. The Isles are saying he's only out 4-6 weeks. I'm not one to tell people I'm right and things like that, but I'm sticking by my prediction. I don't expect to see him for the remainder of the season.

DiPietro however, remained optimistic that he would be able to return sooner rather than later. "I hope so, but I can't tell you how long it's going to take my bones to heal."

Meanwhile, DiPietro is also suffering from swelling in his knee, the same problem he has always been battling. "It's the same stuff we've been dealing with. I'm sure the rest will help."

When asked if he had any regrets for getting into the fight with Brent Johnson, DiPietro gave an emphatic "no."

"I'm not. I'm sick of losing, our team's sick of losing. You never expect to go into a fight and get smashed in the face that hard but it happens, he landed a good punch and we move on."

While DiPietro maintains that he has to move on, the Islanders now have to try and figure out their goaltending situation moving forward.

After practice, Jack Capuano said that nothing had been decided on goaltending from here on out yet.

"I haven't even talked to Garth yet. Obviously, we do have some prospects and I'm sure Garth will make that decision here shortly."

This afternoon, the team announced they signed goalie Joel Martin, currently backing up Mikko Koskinen in Bridgeport, to a two-way contract and kept him in Connecticut on loan to the Sound Tigers. Right now it appears that Koskinen is the favorite to come up with Nathan Lawson still ailing. Koskinen has had a number of issues in Bridgeport this season though, and still appears to be a ways away from living up to the billing as a 31st overall pick.

As far as NHL options, there are a couple that are out there. The most talked about one is currently Ray Emery. Emery has been battling serious health issues of his own in the past few years, but appears poised to make a return to the NHL. He and his agent are expected to sign a deal somewhere shortly, where he could start in the AHL for conditioning and work his way back.

A report from Friday says that the Anaheim Ducks and Philadelphia Flyers were pursuing Emery, as well as a third team. The feeling on that 3rd team is that they are "at a point where they're prepared to make an offer" to sign the goalie. The Islanders are certainly at a point where they can make an offer.

The Islanders passed on Mike Smith on waivers, but if he goes on re-entry then he could be another option. The Toronto Maple leafs have been shopping J.S. Giguere with the emergence of James Reimer.

Of course, if Evgeni Nabokov ever comes to his senses he would be welcomed with open arms now. One has to wonder if he is looking at this situation and changing his mind if he was serious about "visibility for next season." My guess is that he isn't since it was proven otherwise.

Right now, the number one is going to be Kevin Poulin who is obviously up for the challenge. The plan was to try and get Poulin back to Bridgeport at some time to become the number one starter there again, but now it appears like he won't be headed down there until the Isles season has been completed.

"It's bad luck for Ricky but I think it's a great opportunity for me and I'm just looking forward to playing some games."

Poulin continued, saying "The team has helped me a lot. My defense has blocked a lot of shots the last few games."

Capuano was quick when asked about his confidence in the 20 year old going forward. "Poulin's been playing great. Kevin wants to be that guy, he puts the pressure on himself to be that guy and every game he wants to know who's starting."

Poulin has a chance to shine now. Photo by C. Hessel

"I'm not worried about Kevin."

Many Isles fans aren't either, given his 3-2-1 record in nice games, with a .929 SV% and 2.37 GAA.

In all honesty, it would be nice to see the Isles pick up one of the aforementioned goaltenders but I have my doubts. It certainly goes against their thinking of just two weeks ago when they claimed Nabokov, but I think they are fine with just rolling with Poulin for a majority of the games from here on out and mixing and matching Koskinen and Lawson for the other games. We'll have to see what happens here.

Some other notes from practice:

-Mark Eaton showed up for the first time in what seems like a while. Upon entering the locker room, the players eyes lit up and they all flocked around him to see how he was doing. He was telling players that he was pain free, but still couldn't out pressure on his surgically repaired knee EDIT: hip.

-Zenon Konopka was very excited about a potential Twitter account. Apparently, as team communications coordinator Jesse Eisenberg pointed out, someone created a fake twitter account for the often outspoken center. He really wants his own account now, and every time he talked about it the media relations folks kept looking at each other with understandable petrified looks. We'll see if he gets his wish or not.

-Trevor Gillies practiced on the 4th line today with Konopka and Matt Martin. Rob Schremp wore an orange jersey with Josh Bailey, Blake Comeau and Jeremy Colliton. I'm assuming that there's a strong chance that Schremp is an odd man out next game with Gillies getting back in. It makes some sense after what happened last game. The Senators have guys like Matt Carkner and Chris Neil.

-I spoke to Ty Wishart after practice for a small getting to know you type blog entry. He's a good guy with a good personality and a good sense of humor, as he poked fun of himself and how many times he's been traded already. So look for that in the next day or so.

NYI FYI on Saturday: Due to the Super Bowl on Sunday and the fact that everyone has plans, we decided to do the show on Saturday this week at 1 PM. Be sure to tune in by going to our UStream page to listen to us live. There you can also participate in the chat room and submit your questions or thoughts for us to read on air.

-CH

nyifyi@gmail.com